Prosecutor to seek death penalty against man accused in triple slaying

Thursday

Mar 21, 2013 at 10:06 AMMar 22, 2013 at 8:19 AM

Prosecutors will seek the death penalty for a man accused of killing a Lockport woman and her two children last year, District Attorney Cam Morvant II announced Thursday.

Katie UrbaszewskiStaff Writer

Prosecutors will seek the death penalty for a man accused of killing a Lockport woman and her two children last year, District Attorney Cam Morvant II announced Thursday.David Harley Brown, 35, of Houma, is accused of stabbing to death Jacqueline Nieves, 29; Gabriela, 7; and Izabela, 20 months, on the second floor of their Lockport apartment Nov. 4 as the husband and father, Carlos Nieves Jr., slept on the floor below.Brown is also accused of the sexual battery of Jacqueline and Gabriela Nieves, according to documents read aloud in court Thursday morning, in addition to the attempted murder of Carlos Nieves Jr. and the aggravated arson of their apartment. A fire was set in the apartment after the killings, investigators said, though the damage was minor.The Public Defender’s Office hired attorneys Dylan Utley and Jeffrey Smith to represent Brown. Both are private attorneys with experience representing defendants facing the death penalty. Smith said he works for The Capital Defense Project of Southeast Louisiana and previously worked for the Orleans Public Defenders.They met Brown and his mother in the court for the first time Thursday morning.“We don’t know a lot. We’re still in the learning process,” Utley said, explaining why he and Smith couldn’t say much about the case yet.Detectives believe Brown entered the Nieveses’ bedroom and sexually assaulted the two before stabbing all three several times each, said the Lafourche Sheriff’s Office spokesman, Deputy Brennan Matherne. He then ran from the scene.“Based upon the facts of the case, we thought it met the circumstances of first-degree murder,” Morvant said Thursday.Lafourche Sheriff Craig Webre said detectives later found Brown at his home, which court documents say was Bollinger’s bunkhouse trailer 11. At the time, they charged him with breaking into the Nieveses’ neighbor’s apartment. The neighbor, Leroy Hebert, said his family kicked Brown out before they woke up to find a crime scene at their apartment complex. The District Attorney’s Office later charged Brown with murder after receiving DNA results that allegedly put him at the scene, Webre said.The first day Brown was charged with three counts of murder, Webre said he hoped Brown’s “life sentence will be shortened by lethal injection.” Brown meets several criteria required to be charged with first-degree murder. He was in the perpetration of an aggravated arson, he intended to kill more than one person, and he intended to kill children younger than 12, detectives allege.

Staff Writer Katie Urbaszewski can be reached at 448-7617 or katie.urbaszewski@dailycomet.com.